The movement is gathering pace and spreading! That is, spreading geographically as well as in terms of genre and target audience…
This week, a ‘solarpunk’ graphic novel set 500 years in Abu Dhabi’s future has been unveiled at Comic Con:
Solarblader, written by Emirati author Mo Abedin for UAE’s Sandstorm comics, is the first of a planned trilogy
Science fiction is a popular genre, but it’s often chronically pessimistic. To combat the negative trend, the team at Abu Dhabi’s Sandstorm comics has created a hopeful subgenre centring around sustainability that imagines a brighter future for the UAE – even 500 years from now.
And so, Sandstorm Comics unveils three original comic books at MEFCC 2025:

And on Free Comic Friday here is the full Solarblader:
As part of our ongoing partnership with Sandstorm Comics, AIPT can share the entire first issue of Solarblader by Mo Abedin and Ozgur Yildirim. Below, you’ll find the entire issue in English and Arabic!
Here’s the first page as a sample:

…